Bateaux Windsor has just introduced three-hour cruises carrying 40 diners from Windsor to Bray and back.

They also do trips for afternoon teas and lunches. Previously they have operated from Westminster, sailing upstream to Richmond and down to Greenwich, a more complicated business because of the tides.

The dinner cruise to Bray is a more sedate affair. The young waiters, mostly university students, wear white gloves, but they don’t look nearly as serene as the Queen’s swans that paddle in pairs beside our ship.

Share this article

Share

Having been at school near Slough, I once built a canoe and entered the 125 mile Devizes to Westminster canoe race, so I know the River Thames and its moods quite well.

This race is usually won by paratroopers who do it non-stop, but we took food and drinks which added to our burden when we carried the canoe on dry stretches between locks in the Kennet and Avon Canal.

What a pleasure it is, in contrast, to be pampered by Bateaux Windsor with roasted cauliflower soup as we pass Windsor Racecourse, smoked mackerel near Boveney Lock, slow-cooked featherblade steak near Monkey Island.